Adalah’s News
8 March 2022
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ENSURING PALESTINIANS’ FREEDOM OF MOVEMENT:
POLICE REMOVE ALL CHECKPOINTS IN SHEIKH JARRAH
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Images: map and photos of checkpoints in Western part of the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood (above and in the gallery). Photos by: The Sheikh Jarrah Neighborhood Committee
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Following Adalah’s petition to the Israeli Supreme Court, on 7 March 2022 the Israeli police removed all checkpoints they have erected in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah. During the past weeks, the police have set up 10 checkpoints in the neighborhood, severely restricting Palestinian residents’ freedom of movement and prohibiting their visitors’ entrance, while Israeli Jewish settlers were free to move in and around the neighborhood. The checkpoints turned this Palestinian residential area into a military-security zone, designed to stop protests against Palestinians’ displacement and dispossession by the settlers and the state.
The checkpoints violate the rights of the residents: they turned Palestinian families into prisoners, and made social life almost impossible. Adalah filed the petition on 6 March 2022, on behalf of residents and in cooperation with the Civic Coalition for Palestinian Rights in Jerusalem, demanding the removal of all checkpoints. The checkpoints required Palestinians to show their ID cards to prove their residency; children under 16, who do not possess ID cards, were not able to cross without their parents.
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UN Human Rights Committee convenes in Geneva. Photo courtesy of the Centre for Civil and Political Rights
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The UN Human Rights Committee (HRCttee) reviewed Israel’s human rights record and Israel’s lack of compliance with the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) during the first week of March. At the NGO briefings, Adalah specifically urged the HRCttee to demand the immediate cancellation of the racist and discriminatory Jewish Nation-State Law, and answered questions posed by Committee members about the continued ban on Palestinian family unification; the draconian 2016 Counter-Terrorism law; and the lack of accountability for Israel’s war crimes, particularly in Gaza.
Read Adalah's statement to to the UN Human Rights Committee.
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Adalah Attorney Nareman Shehadeh-Zoabi delivers an oral statement to the UN Human Rights Committee via video
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READ ADALAH'S REPORT to the HRCttee, which addresses a wide range of Israel's segregationist and discriminatory laws, policies, and practices, including: its politically-motivated attack on Palestinian human rights organizations; the forced displacement of Palestinian Bedouins in the Naqab; the excessive use of force, mass arrests, and torture by Israeli forces during May 2021. The HRCttee will issue its concluding observations at the end of March.
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Houses on the southern edge of Jisr Az-Zarqa, as seen from an embankment that separates the town from the neighboring wealthy Jewish Israeli town of Caesarea / (Photo by Mati Milstein)
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Israel has historically and deliberately neglected Palestinian localities within the Green Line and drastically limited their land space, creating a severe housing shortage. On 30 January 2022, Adalah sent a letter to Israeli authorities demanding the expansion of the mandate of the Public Housing Committee, which will review the eligibility requirements for public housing. There is almost no public housing in Palestinian towns in Israel.
Recent data published by the Knesset also indicates a significant under-representation of Palestinian citizen workers and experts in Israel’s planning and building institutions. In February 2022, Adalah sent a letter demanding adequate representation of Palestinian citizens of Israel in these bodies. Fair representation in planning and building authorities is important for the promotion of Palestinian citizens’ input into decision-making, and to address the unique needs of Arab towns and villages faced with meeting the challenges of decades of state discriminatory practices.
Despite of the severe housing crisis, the state’s methods of marketing for new housing units in Arab towns do not provide solutions for residents. On 7 March 2022, Adalah sent a letter to the Housing Minister and the Israel Land Authority (ILA) demanding that they change the marketing and tender process of new housing units planned in Jisr Az-Zarqa, and adopt measures suitable for this poverty-stricken village in the north, including more affordable housing and buying units for public housing. With about 80% of the current tender going to non-local residents, the current method falls far short.
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MARKING INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY
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Today, on the occasion of International Women’s Day, Adalah joins UN Women and the world in recognizing the contribution of women and girls in building a more sustainable future for all.
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Stand with Justice, Support Adalah
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